


Exiled

by Queenjoker



Series: Lucky Ones [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 08:44:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7795117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenjoker/pseuds/Queenjoker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shadows settle on the place, that you left.<br/>Our minds are troubled by the emptiness.<br/>---<br/>How does anyone make a home out in space? You talk it out, obviously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exiled

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So uh, this is more like a test one-shot than anything else since this is my first time writing them, or writing in general ^^;

 Keith could describe _home_ in the simplest matter:  it was the place you came back to.

Even he had that back on Earth. Sure, the shack was small, but it was all he really needed. For all those days spent roaming the desert grounds with nothing but the sun and stars as his company, it was knowing he still had a bed he could return to that kept him from dropping dead. Better to die on cushions than on sand.

He also knew how devastating it was to lose a home, because before his little shed, home was a _person_.

Shiro was a calming beacon in his life, almost like the older brother he never had. He was a home that Keith went back to time and time again because his company alone was what helped him ease tensions he had been carrying for years. When the time came for Shiro to leave for his Kerberos mission, Keith felt like he was simply saying good-bye for a while. It wouldn’t be forever, he knew.

Except.

It seemed like it.

The mission was a bust.

The news hit him hard and stuck like a wound he would be constantly reminded of.  Everything did, in a way. The Garrison, their officials, the tv reporters. They all boasted bruises on Keith’s consciousness that pushed him to the brink of his patience until he even lost whatever place he had in the Galaxy Garrison.

Whatever it was, wasn’t home. It wasn’t without Shiro anymore.

His shack, however small and far off, was.

 _Was_.

Past-tense again, because things changed so fast and so out of his control in a matter of minutes once the Blue Lion was found. One moment he was rushing to save Shiro, and the next the five of them (package now including one big guy, a small runt, and an annoyance that wouldn’t stop squawking) were jumping off into a wormhole on an alien war ship. Now— _present-tense_ —he drifted on a castle that was huge, mobile and inhabited by others besides him. Whereas his time at the cabin helped him get used to the place to the point that it became a home (even if, ultimately, it wasn’t an enjoyable one), the castle was completely different. 

It wasn’t always peaceful, like his time in isolation gave him, and it was very much _alien_.

Even Shiro wasn’t someone he could go to all the time like he used to before. The man’s time in captivity shook him in a way that Keith couldn’t always get a hold of. A tired smile and a “yeah, I’m fine” seemed to be Shiro’s automatic response every time Keith tried to get more out of him. As if it was a haunting that kept close to him like a heavy cloak. If a cloak was something that gave you night terrors, that is.

That’s why Keith came to the conclusion that maybe he knew what was going on in Lance’s head for once.

“Hey,” he called out to him, after catching him roaming the halls late one night. Stalking the halls, admittedly, was more of Keith’s thing to do and everyone knew of Lance’s rigorous beauty regime that included plenty of sleep to sustain his baby smooth skin. It was all kinds of suspicious and worrisome to find him doing otherwise.

Lance, on the other hand, gave him a rather tame surprised look. Not entirely shocked, but clearly trying to tone it down. “Oh, hey.”

For a while the two just stared at each other and Keith seriously considered simply just letting the matter drop. Lance could have his walks and why shouldn’t he? Keith wasn’t socially inept enough to not know that everyone here carried their own set of worries that kept them up at night and made them want some privacy. Nobody lived a perfect life.

But it was unsettling the way Lance was keeping quiet, enough so that Keith was forcing himself to say “Getting food?” before he could think it through. Food at 1 AM? Yeah, fantastic. Good one, Keith.

He watched Lance be sincerely taken aback from his words, and immediately felt like smacking his head on the wall. Well. _Duh_. Who the hell eats this late anyways?

He was well on his way from taking back his question when Lance shrugged and answered, “I guess. Yeah. You want in?”

It’s not that the two didn’t spend time together. Hell, all the bonding exercises Allura had them doing usually ended up with the pair side-by-side. Bickering, for the most part of it, sure, but it was still together.

This conversation though was different. There was no preamble to it, no arguing from either sides. It felt like an olive branch was suddenly offered and neither really knew what to do with the stick that didn’t include throwing it at the other.

But seeing as it was Keith who started it, he should at least see this through. So he gave a slow nod as he turned to join Lance for a very late-night snack.

“Alright, I know for a fact that Hunk made a new batch of…uhm…” Lance started as he opened the fridge door, trailing off as he brought out the bowl of sludge that was varying shades of purple and green. Keith gave the bowl one look before giving a raised eyebrow towards Lance, who shrugged with a ‘don’t knock it till you try it’ kind of look in reply.

They decided on a spot near one of the bigger windows of the castle, one that gave them full-view of the starry skies they were swimming through. It was a moment of silence bar the few sounds of clanking utensils from eating and one that Keith thought would last until he heard something from the other boy.

“…What?”

“Do you miss it? Earth?” he said this while gesturing vaguely out at the window, even though realistically speaking neither really knew where they were in comparison to the planet.

Keith looked out at the black expansion before him, and felt the nothingness stare back. Of course he misses Earth. Maybe not in the same way as Lance or the others, who had family waiting for them, but there was still a calling in his heart that he knew could only come from missing something.

“Of course I do. It’s home,” he said and got a contemplative sound from Lance in return that he took offense from immediately. What? Couldn’t Keith have feelings too? Sure, out of all them, Lance was probably the most emotional one (Coran told him, while Keith stood by the healing pod where a comatose Lance was recovering, how Lance felt about being so far from his family. He knew it got to the boy more than he let it show.), but Keith had a home too. Even if it wasn’t perfect, he belonged somewhere for a while and that’s what mattered to him.

Keith must have been already glaring because Lance raised a hand as if to stop an attack. “It’s just. You don’t really seem like it.”

“We all have ways of dealing with it,” Keith argued back, finishing his bowl of sludge and putting it aside, “mine’s just not as _outwardly_.”

He didn’t say anything more as Lance took both of their bowls back to the counter. He thought it wasn’t going to be brought up again until the other sat right next to him and let out a sigh.

“Well, what do you miss then?” Lance didn’t look at him, keeping his eyes upward towards the space beyond the window and Keith followed suit.

He couldn’t say family, like Lance probably would. He didn’t feel like he needed to go back to the Galaxy Garrison.

What did he miss?

He closed his eyes, and like their earlier bonding exercise where they shared each other’s minds, he returned to his little cabin in the desert.

He remembered being alone, the calm and quietness of it all.

“Do you remember my place?” he heard Lance’s sound of affirmation and said “Well, there’s this tree there in the backyard.”

Keith could feel Lance’s gaze turning towards him ever so slightly, a sort of acknowledgement for him to go on.

“And you see, it wasn’t that big when I first came there. Just growing, really. But it was something, especially in a desert like that.” Keith remembered seeing the little tree the first time, this survivor among the stagnant surrounding. Maybe it was cliché but he wanted to see potential in that tree, wanted it to hold out for the future. He told Lance as much.

“So you took care of it, then?”

Nodding, Keith smiled in memory of how excited he was when he noted the tree’s gradual growth, despite how little it showed day by day. But the results were worth it. By the time they left the shack, the tree was grown and should be able to take care of its own.

They passed the minutes, like this. Talking to each other of little things they remember; Lance and his siblings, Keith and his discoveries in the desert. It was filling, he realized, getting to reminisce like this with one another. From the smile on the other boy, Keith thought for once the two of them found common ground.

By the time 3 AM rolled around, the two parted with little to no squabble.

 

* * *

 

It happens again and again, these late night talks.

The first time was by chance, the second time was a hopeful ‘what if’ that came true, and by the third time, they decided it’s a Thing between them now.

And God, if Lance isn’t thankful.

Daytime still called for arguments between the two paladins, mostly still initiated by Lance, but it’s friendlier now, with an understanding of the other that these were just friendly jabs. A way to connect beyond their talks. Keith still looks like he might stab Lance at some point and does kick Lance’s butt in every training possible but honestly that was something he expected to stay the same.

But when nighttime comes, there’s the shift that comes for all people. To Lance, past-midnight meant that all feelings were fair game to come forth. Unfortunately for him, a majority of those feelings were homesickness for a planet so far away he couldn’t even imagine getting back any time soon. 

Usually he can push it back by falling asleep just like that. Some would find his regime egotistical and a bit too much, with the face mask and headphones and all that. He won’t deny that it is in some way, but he definitely won’t admit the other reason he does it all: That the familiar process makes him grounded to the few facts left in his life, that it brings him closer in some small way to his home back on Earth. It was from his siblings after all that he learned all of these techniques, and so it felt like they were still there for him even if they were galaxies apart.

If someone looked harder into it, he was sure they would know how him playing music was just his lonely-ass’ way of filling in the silence he’s never going to get quite used to in space. Who knows, maybe Shiro has gone through Psych 101 and could help both of them out.

But as it was, nobody has called him out on it and he didn’t know if he was relieved or not.

That is, until Keith stopped him that one night.

He knew that the other liked to walk these halls late at night, and usually his regime didn’t give them many chances to talk to each other outside of training. Lance himself started this walk because he thought with how big the castle was, there was little to no chance of running into the others.

Their talks helped in a way Lance could never truly describe to Keith. It wasn’t that the others weren’t there for him. Hunk was the closest one he could think of calling his best friend among the paladins, but he knew that the guy didn’t have the same homesickness Lance felt for their shared planet. Hunk—and in a same way, Pidge—were adaptive to their situations. Hunk was focused on the present and how to help his friends, while Pidge was focused on the family they had somewhere beyond the cosmos.

Neither really turned back to Earth as consistently as Lance did.

Except, someone else did, apparently.

Lance remembered it from their psychic bonding exercise, of Hunk’s current thought of food, of Shiro’s thought back to the ship from Earth, of Pidge’s private thought of their brother and amidst it all was Keith’s thought back to his shack.

He had held back some surprise at that, that fury-ridden Keith wasn’t constantly thinking of whacking an opponent with his sword and fists. But other than that one insider, Lance never saw another hint that Keith was missing anything back on Earth, especially when it seemed like the closest person he had there—Shiro—was already with him here.

So he didn’t really expect much of an answer when he first asked whether or not Keith really missed Earth. Didn’t expect the longing in the other’s eyes that was familiar in his own.

It became easier then to just talk.

Because when you were alone in a place as big as space, it was hard to find something to focus on. Your mind could splatter in every direction and down every thought at any given point. It was disorientating and had been gnawing at Lance ever since the castle lifted off. With these talks, however, brought forth a grounding point. As if someone has finally planted a flag, and told Lance constantly that this is where he is, this is where he could return to.

He wasn’t lost.

Sometimes they would talk to each other in hushed tones, the weight of sleep finally kicking in, but still they continued. And if at times they end up pretty close to each other, so be it. It was easier to hear that way anyways.

At first, he thought it was the location. That if he just returned to where Keith and him talked, he’d be fine. It didn’t—he still felt panicky, lost, and out of touch. Staring out the window wasn’t helping him out at all.

He closed his eyes to try to keep emotions in check, feeling acceptance that he would never get rid of this homesickness.

“Lance?”

 _Ah_.

“Y-Yeah, buddy?” he managed to get out, as he got his breathing in control. It’s not as if this would have been the first time either one of them cried in front of each other. Reminiscing about home did that kind of things to them. It was an unspoken rule between them that crying was okay to let out. Just like leaning on each other’s shoulders was a-ok, because it’s past midnight and everyone was tired, okay?

Keith looked at him, at Lance’s deliberate breathing, avoidance of eye-contact, and just sat down next to him. A moment of silence passed before Keith simply started talking. Of anything. Of anybody.

There’s the story of his one job as a caterer, moving around avoiding little kids begging for food, and another of these girls in fourth grade he had to sit with for an entire year that spent most of year flirting at each other by making him pass the notes between them.

Lance closed his eyes, listening to Keith’s low voice and half-snickering at the situation, already feeling his breathing return to normal.

_I am here._

_“_ And I’m there thinking they need to get this straighten out. This is taking valuable snack-time from me. Priorities, you know? And Lance- Lance?”

“Hmm?” Realizing somewhere along the story-telling, they ended up leaning on each other, again, Lance glanced downwards to see Keith’s face angled towards him.

“They ended up dating by the end of the year. I think they’re still together, actually.”

 _“_ Cheers to them _”_

_I am home._


End file.
